Don’t adjust your monitor – this really is BlackBerry’s new phone

BlackBerry has revealed a trio of new smartphones, the most peculiar of which is called the Passport.

At first glance, it looks like a techno-sadist has sawn the bottom off a regular BlackBerry, but look closer and you’ll notice the illusion is all down to the keyboard.

The Passport has ditched the fourth row of the traditional BlackBerry keyboard by shifting the spacebar up, shrinking it, and placing it between the V and B keys. After spending hours glued to BlackBerry’s previous keyboards, we must admit it look positively alien to us.

The Passport, like the Q10, has a square 1:1 ratio screen, measuring 4.5 inches diagonally, with a resolution of 1440 x 1440. That’s a very respectable 452 ppi – more pixel-packed, for example, than the HTC One (M8)’s 441 ppi display.

Despite its smaller screen, the Passport is actually wider than the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, measuring in at 2.8 inches across, compared to the Note 3’s 2 inch width.

It’s all rather bizarre, and we’re a little dubious as to how comfortable the new keyboard will be to type on, given its shallow makeover. We will of course reserve our judgement until we play with one in person.